Unholy Alliance: Aryan Nation reaches out to Al-Qaeda

August Kreis, leader of the Aryan Nation, wants to work with Al-Qaeda.

I know many on this board are suspect whether Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda attacked the United States. I can understand why so many are distrustful of anything said by George W. Bush.

I do trust Richard Clarke. Bush promised OBL dead or alive and six months later said he didn’t care where he is. For that reason alone, George Bush does not deserve to be president.

Now we have the Aryan Nation seeking common ground with those responsible for the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks. Talk about an unholy alliance.
From CNN:

“You say they’re terrorists, I say they’re freedom fighters. And I want to instill the same jihadic feeling in our peoples’ heart, in the Aryan race, that they have for their father, who they call Allah.”

With his long beard and potbelly, August Kreis looks more like a washed up member of ZZ Top than an aspiring revolutionary.

Don’t let appearances fool you: his résumé includes stops at some of America’s nastiest extremist groups — Posse Comitatus, the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nation.

“I don’t believe that they were the ones that attacked us,” Kreis said. “And even if they did, even if you say they did, I don’t care!”

Kreis wants to make common cause with al Qaeda because, he says, they share the same enemies: Jews and the American government.

The terms they use may be different: White supremacists call them ZOG, the Zionist Occupation Government, while al Qaeda calls them the Jews and Crusaders.

But the hatred is the same. And Kreis wants to exploit that.

Hatred…Bush and Rove and Cheney played the emotion of hatred like a fiddle, stroking their base to feel hatred. Maybe Kreis can find common cause with them.

One group doesn’t need the Aryan Nation, however.

Mark Potok, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, said that while some U.S. extremists applauded the September 11 attacks, there is no indication of such an alliance — at least not yet, and not on a large scale. If it exists anywhere, he said, it is in the mind (and the Internet postings) of August Kreis.

For its part, the FBI says it hasn’t seen any links between American white supremacists and groups like al Qaeda.

“The notion of radical Islamists from abroad actually getting together with American neo-Nazis I think is an absolutely frightening one,” said Potok. “It’s just that so far we really have no evidence at all to suggest this is any kind of real collaboration.”

So while August Kreis may be calling, there is no sign that al Qaeda is listening.

But that hasn’t stopped him. As we ended our interview, we asked Kreis if he had any message for Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants.

“The message is, the cells are out here and they are already in place,” Kreis said. “They might not be cells of Islamic people, but they are here and they are ready to fight.”

DowneastDem posted a diary, What’s the matter with Kansas on March 9 about the Aryan Nation wanting to move the headquarters to Kansas City. It’s worth a read and check out the comment thread too.

UPDATE Here’s my answer to hate groups, be they the Aryan Nation or the Bush Cult. Link here: Crank it to 11!